The Diamondbacks have left themselves with a sliver of a path, and it starts with taking care of business in Colorado.
Arizona enters a three-game set against the Rockies at Coors Field with only six games left on the regular-season schedule, and its postseason hopes now depend on what happens over this final stretch. The D-backs have to chase down Philadelphia for the third NL Wild Card spot, and the Phillies are 8-10 in September, which has pushed them back into the mix.
The math is tight. For Arizona to catch Philadelphia, one of these scenarios has to happen: the Diamondbacks go 4-2 while the Phillies go 0-6; the Diamondbacks go 6-0 while the Phillies go 2-4 or worse; or the Diamondbacks go 5-1 while the Phillies go 1-5 or worse.
Arizona at least bought itself more time over the weekend. The Diamondbacks rallied for two comeback wins against the Yankees, including a walk-off victory that came with the franchise’s 2001 World Series team in attendance. Those wins secured a winning record and kept Arizona alive for one more series.
Now comes the part that makes or breaks the run. The Diamondbacks open Monday against a Rockies club that sits at the bottom of the standings, but the setting is still Coors Field, and there’s no easy way through a mile-high road trip when every game matters this much.
Around the league, the Cubs are waiting on the status of Alex Bregman after he suffered multiple facial fractures when he was hit by a foul ball on Sunday. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Monday that Bregman will not undergo surgery and could return for the postseason, though the team has not confirmed that update.
The Giants also made a roster move involving Bryce Eldridge, putting the first baseman/designated hitter on the seven-day concussion list. The move is retroactive to Sept. 18, which leaves open the possibility that he could appear in San Francisco’s final three games against the Dodgers this weekend.
Still, manager Tony Vitello said he doesn’t anticipate Eldridge playing again in 2026. Eldridge, 21, was hitting .269 with 17 home runs and 57 RBIs in 386 at-bats, and he made his season debut on May 4 after beginning the year elsewhere.
There’s also been plenty of sorting to do in the playoff picture itself. Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs noted that with one week left, the National League field is nearly locked in, but the American League remains unsettled, with two division leaders - different ones from the last time he checked - separated by just one game. Those races are spilling into the fight for the third and final Wild Card spot, and while there won’t be any tiebreaker games because of the playoff format change in the 2022 Collective Bargaining Agreement, MLB’s tiebreaker procedures could still decide a postseason berth, and maybe even a division title.
One more Diamondbacks note: Vice Admiral Dr. Richard Carmona was honored with the 2026 Pete Garcia Hispanic Leadership Award, presented by the Los D-backs Hispanic Council and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The award recognized a life that moved from Harlem to Surgeon General, and the presentation on the field was described as a celebration of an extraordinary journey grounded in service, resilience, and helping others.
There was also an update on Mantiply, who has spent the entire season with the Blue Jays organization. He originally signed a minor league deal with Toronto last summer, re-signed on another minor league pact after becoming a free agent, and was added to the 40-man roster on April 5. He has logged only 27 innings in the majors this year, missing months after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late May.
In Other News...
Corbin Burnes Puts Arizonas 2027 Rotation Hopes In Focus
The Diamondbacks are still hanging around the postseason picture, even if the path is a steep one, and a lot of their long-term outlook is starting to point toward the mound. Corbin Burnes has been working his way back from Tommy John surgery, and while his early outings this year have come with a high ERA, the bigger story in Arizona is less about the short-term stat line and more about what he can mean when the rotation is whole again.
For a club that has leaned on offense at times and still needs more certainty in the pitching mix, Burnes looms as a key piece of the 2027 plan. His return is viewed as important for strengthening the Diamondbacks rotation, which gives his recovery a different kind of significance than the usual late-season rehab storyline. Even with the current playoff chase still alive, the organization is clearly keeping one eye on the future shape of this staff. [Read more 🡒]
Diamondbacks Offensive Frustration Looks Different In The Biggest Moments
The Diamondbacks have spent much of the season looking like a team that can do damage when the moment sharpens, and the numbers back it up. A huge share of their scoring has come with runners in scoring position, which is part of why this offense has been so dangerous even when it has not always looked smooth from inning to inning. The power is there, and in the biggest swings of the game, Arizona has often found a way to cash in.
What makes the profile more interesting is how uneven the production has been underneath that success. The clubs slugging in RISP spots has been strong, but the on-base work has lagged behind, which helps explain why some rallies feel more fragile than they should. Recent stretches from August into mid-September have shown the same push-and-pull, with Jos Fernndez, Corbin Carroll and Ryan Waldschmidt standing out for the way theyve driven the ball in those situations while the broader question of consistency still hangs over the lineup. [Read more 🡒]
Dbacks Kept Their Season Alive But The Real Pressure Starts Now
The Diamondbacks did what they had to do against the Rockies, jumping on Colorado early with three runs in the first inning and then leaning on a steady night from Michael Soroka to keep the game from drifting away. Soroka worked seven innings, gave up one earned run and struck out nine, the kind of outing Arizona needed in a game with no margin for error.
Nolan Arenado tried to flip the script with a three-run homer in the seventh, his 28th of the season and his third hit of the night, but Arizona held on and kept its season breathing. Even with that win, the bigger issue now is not the box score from one night in Denver, it is whether the Diamondbacks can keep stacking clean innings and timely offense when the pressure only gets louder from here. [Read more 🡒]